Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua, a member of the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC), has demanded that the PAC chairman Hasan Arifin to resign from his position and cited a multiplicity of reasons. “He lied to the committee, suppressed evidence, covered up wrong doing and obstructed investigations into 1MDB.”
Pua who is also DAP National Publicity Secretary said, Hasan has brought the PAC into public disrepute and contempt. “He’s nothing more than a tool being used by the crooks who stole billions from the people.”
If Hasan had disclosed the letter from Bank Negara to him, Jho Low would have to be called to testify before the Committee.
Pua pointed out that Hasan instead unilaterally deleted sentences from the finalised PAC Report on 1MDB. “The deleted sentences quoted Bank Negara which disclosed that the ‘ultimate beneficiary of Good Star Limited is an individual not related to Petrosaudi International Limited’.”
Further, said Pua, Hasan also failed to disclose to PAC members another letter from Bank Negara dated 6 April 2016, a day before the final PAC report was tabled in Parliament. “We discovered the existence of the letter via a ministerial reply in Parliament on 17 May 2016.”
“We confronted the PAC Chairman during our meeting the very next day.”
All PAC opposition members were left speechless when Hasan refused to share the contents of the Bank Negara letter with them. “We could not understand Hasan’s claims of confidentiality.”
PAC members were even authorised to review the Auditor-General’s Report on 1MDB which was classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA), he recalled. “Nothing could possibly be more confidential than OSA documents.”
“Hasan refused to respond to the press despite repeated queries.”
The MP was commenting on the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) publishing the letter dated 6 April 2016 from Bank Negara to the PAC. “The letter stated that Good Star Limited is ‘beneficially owned by Low Taek Jho’ and that there was never any change of ownership in the company.”
This crucial piece of information opens up a Pandora’s Box, continued Pua. “It confirmed what critics like The Sarawak Report, The Edge and opposition MPs have accused 1MDB all along.”
Out of the USD1.83 billion investment 1MDB carried out with Petrosaudi International Limited, stressed Pua, at least USD1.03 billion was directly misappropriated by Good Star Limited, owned by Jho Low. “Najib’s claim that Petrosaudi International Limited owns Good Star does not hold water.”
“There are no legal documents to prove Najib’s claim. Fraud, while previously suspected, has been confirmed.”
Source FMT
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